The Portland daily press., 1887-10-12
THIRTY KILLED.
Another Terrible Accident on a West
ern Railroad.
The Scene in Indiana, 60 Miles South.
east Of Chicago.
Sleeping Passengers Crushed Without
a Moments Warning.
Then a Fire to Complete the Fatal
Work.
All this Because a Fast Freight Ran too
Near an Express.

KoUr's STATION, Indiana, Oct. 11.-Some
of the worst horrors of the Chatsworth dis
aster were equaled near here last night. A
dozen, blood stained, smoked-begrimed and
badly injured victims of some ones CARELESS
ness or blunder were brought to this villages
little station early this morning. This af-
ternoon nine charred corpses iof victims of
the same laundering or carelessness were
laid upon the station platform, while three
miles west down the track Of the Chicago &
Atlantic railway near an old water tank,
piles of fearfully tangled debris mark the
spot where collision, such as is seldom
equalled for terrible results, occurred last
night. According to the best estimate OBJ
tainable 80 lives were sacrificed outright
while half that number have suffered ibjur-
les more or less serious.
The east bound express left Chicago last
night with great load of passengers. Just
before it reached this station, without mo-
ment'S warning during a temporary delay,
it was struck from behind by loaded fast
freight which was plungng madly forward
in the darkness, hurrying dressed meat to
| the seaboard Some part of the machinery
| of the passenger engine had been thrown out
| of order during the run from Chicago, and,
| triflng stop was made at the water tank
| for repairs. Suddenly, out of the darkness,
| came the flash of headlight, rush and
rattle of many wheels, then mighty crash.
| TIE sleeping coach on the rear of the pas
senger train was pushed mercilesslyiforward
by the freight, and crushed into the cars for
ward, smashing their comparatively light
timbers and making the work of destruction
complete. The wreck quickly took fire, and
| the scenes of horror, usual under such cir
| cumstances. followed.
This afternoon, when the reporters, who
| were long delayed, owing to the Secretive-
| ness of the railroad officials, began to arrive
there was little to indicate the calamity. All
the dead bodies were carefully removed from
| sight and only two wounded were still in the
| village. The local employees were deaf and
dumb. The coroner was obliged to go to
Huntington, over 80 miles. to obtain the
statement of witnesses.
The villagers were wholly at sea regarding
the extent of the disaster About the only
person willing to tell the details was DIR. w.
"
after a. m. and Immediately began to give
his services to the wounded. Those badly
hurt when the crash came, he said, must
have had little chance for their lives, so
quickly did the cars take fire, and so thor
ough was the work of the flames. Asian IL
lustration, the doctor said that probably not
soul would have been aware OF all but the
total wiping out of the Miller family of six,
had not their boy been saved. DR.. Mckee
stated that only nine bodies were recovered
and they were so badly charred as to be al
most beyond recognition, the most left of
any being the blackened trunk. In some
cases there was little beyond few handfuls
of ashes. Nine were with the Miller family, Of
Dundee, the father, mother, two brothers, a
girl, a 14-year old boy Herman, who will
probably die also, DIR. Perry, of North Jud-
son, Ind, his wife and daughter aged IL, and
young Irish lady.
Some Individual Experiences.
CHICAGO, Oct 11.-Several passengers on
the train arrived here this afternoon. w.
A. Duncan, of Syracuse. N. Y, who saw the
wrecks, estimates the killed at IS or 20. A
number were burned before his eyes. A little
Bohemian boy. hemmed in the wreck, saw
his father, mother and two sisters roa sted.
The boy is dying. doctor on the train
saw his wife and daughter cremated while
powerless to Lelp.
One gentleman from Taunton, Mass, on
his way home, says he was sitting in the
first car asleep. his head on his satchel. He
heard a frightful crash and the car
seemed shattered to pieces and flying past.
The next he knew he found himself almost
buried in ruins, which seemed to keep piling
up. 81 tried to extricate myself" he says,
land found I.was.near a window. A II around
were yells, groans and blackness, that made
it fearf ul. didn't seem to be hurt, only
much shaken up. / called for help out of
the win dow. Some men helped me out.
then helped get others out. A little while
forced to give up working bit by bit and let
it burn with the horrible cries of those in
side ringing in our ears. At one
place were two traa or three ast tns
They were shrieking all the time in man
ner to freeze ones blood. The fire was COM
ing nearer. We worked as long as we could
but could not get them out. The fire came
all around them, and finally silenced their
screams. To hear their desperate cries as
the fire came nearer and nearer and finally
reached them was simply appalling. The
wreck burned to the trucks. There were no
facilities for extinguishing the fire.. A car
load of injured we've taken eastward this
forenoon. There were MANNED, bruised and
burned ones,
KoUTs's STATION, Ind, Oct. 11.-Among
the wounded is Joseph McCool, a Boston
bar tender. His injuries are internal but re-
passenger coach next to the last car in the
train. Just before midnight went into the
smoker just ahead and chatted for an hour
came back to the coach with a young man
who sat near me. That is the last | expect
to see of the poor fellow. Just as / stretched
myself out to go to sleep, before | closed my
eyes there was an awful crash. / could feel
myself thrown violently toward the top of
the car, then became insensible. On the
way up realized that all was confusion.
Canes yalises. rods OF iron and lamps were
in the air about me. l must have regained
CONSCIOUSNESS in very short time.
When l awoke all was darkness in
the car and horrible shrieks and piercing
walls of agony almost deafened my ears. In
the end of the car furthest from me the stove
was overturned and the flames had lust
started TO spread. Some sort of new gas
lamps were in the car with reservoirs reach
ing from one to the other. The flames
leaped up the sides and in less time than |
can tell it, gas was burning the whole length
of the coach over our heads. l was wedged
in between the seats l watched the fire
slowly creeping upon me. 1t was terrible
sight. In the end of the coach near the FIRE
could see a lady caught between the seats.
The fire was slowly creeping across the car.
and she was soon envel0ped. Then in agony
she burned before my eyes. Just across
from my seat noticed, shortly before the
accident, father, wife and daughter / saw
them crushed together and burned. Just as
the flames were blazing within foot or two
away from me a man pulled me into the aisle
and said, Come to the window He must
have mistaken me for some one else, for the
moment he looked closely at my face he
dropped me, and hurried through the win
dow with an exclamation of disappointment
painfully crawled after him in safety"
Some Official Statements.
The engineer of the passenger train saws:
1--WE passed No. 40 at Boonsgrove on time
and started toward Kouts's. No. 40 pulled
out of the station less than two minutes be-
hind us, when she should have waited much
longer. When we were well away from the
town | could see her lights a little way be-
hind. We were. not running very fast be-